Serendipitous Solidarity
by OmnipresentNuance
Summary: The charge of bringing misfortune can feel painful, especially when it's over something petty, turns your whole family crazy and even when you run with the accusation for your own selfish gain. But perhaps the road to understanding can begin with a handful of souls, including the one who leveled the charge. Yes, it's one of *those* fics of the luck, such and no varieties.
1. Confessions and Making Things Right

**Good day. ****This is the second story of my big triple upload for this special day and, oh yeah, we're going there, folks.**

**Now, chances are there are two very fair and pertinent questions that'll be asked of me: "Ugh, haven't we have enough of these already?!" and "Even if we don't, what are you going to do different that hasn't been done dozens upon dozens of times before?" **

**For the second question at the very least, I'd say it's a case of "what can I **_**not** _**do that hasn't been done before". In other words, no death, murder, suicide, self harm, blood, violence, profane tirades, excessive angst, unnecessary additional cruelty, running away, police involvement or whatever else has been done a lot before, so there you go. Not that my goal was to create one of the "cleaner" fanfics of this variety, but that's how it turned out and I thought there was absolutely no need for the angst and drama factors to be ramped up to such an unneeded pitch.**

**It's also worth that this takes place right as Lincoln is made to sleep outside, but also this drastically changes a few other things as well, making this first story of mine in over two months that alters the events of an episode and will be the second to last for the foreseeable future that does so.**

**Additionally, yes, the character selection may indeed raise some suspicions and I will owe you all an explanation in due time later on, but until then, let's just get going with this and see what happens.**

_**The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.**_

* * *

He just couldn't understand it. He was confused, baffled and one could even say very much in a clear state of bewilderment.

The confusion in question was how Lincoln was feeling right over the stunning predicament he found himself in right now as an 11-year-old boy being locked out by his own family and having to sleep outdoors. Anyone who could've been a witness to this would have rightly asked what lead to such a level of mistreatment to occur in the first place, although his family was far from the only guilty party in this equation.

The whole ordeal stemmed from a few days earlier. What happened was that Lincoln had been made to attend a baseball game that his older sister, Lynn, was participating in, which she and her team ended up losing. Lynn oftentimes didn't take losing in sports very well and decided on putting the onus on Lincoln for the loss, since he'd never actually went to any of her games prior to that and her team won each of them before. Thus, Lynn not only blamed her own brother for the loss, but even took the extraordinary step of claiming he must be bad luck. Such an audacious charge likely stemmed from Lynn's heavy case of being superstitious, as she wouldn't let anything affect or jinx her chances in any of her sports outings.

But as if that wasn't enough, she took the extra step in spreading the false claim of bad luck to the rest of the family and made them fearfully reconsider bringing him along for any engagements of their own or any other kind of family gatherings and events. In fairness, Lincoln didn't exactly make matters any better for himself when he chose to follow along with the unfounded accusation so that he could have an excuse to stay home and do whatever he wanted while everyone else did their thing elsewhere.

But at the end of the day, no matter if he went along with things or how he exploited it for his own gain, nothing excused the extent of which Lincoln had been treated tonight, being barred from his own bedroom on top of being sentenced to sleeping outdoors. And if things weren't unpleasant enough, he felt and heard the gentle sensation of raindrops falling from the sky followed by a low rumble of thunder.

"Great, just great..." Lincoln muttered softly.

He tried to take shelter underneath the tree in the backyard, but that proved to not be sufficient enough. His only option that was plausible now was to take refuge in the garage for the evening, which he didn't waste much time in going to.

Once inside, Lincoln now struggled with getting comfortable enough to order to get some sleep. The hard cement floor was definitely not helping at all.

"This gives out not comfort at all..." He said lamentably, "But I probably deserve it for playing along with this bad luck act..."

For the next few minutes, Lincoln tried in vain to send himself into slumber. He let out a frustrated groan as he shifted positions, not finding one that worked out for him.

Just as he was giving up hope in seeking a comfortable status, he could hear a pair of voices just beyond the garage and through the pattering of rain.

"You sure you've got everything?"

"I'm cool on my end. Just get the door."

He knew exactly who those voices belonged to and mere seconds after they'd spoke, the side door opened to show Luan holding an umbrella and Luna following behind her hauling a trash bag over her shoulder. Both were also clad in raincoats and boots as they both stepped inside while Luan folded up the umbrella and then shook it dry.

"Luan? Luna? What are you two doing here?" Lincoln asked.

"We'll fill you in on everything in a jiff, bro. Just give us a moment." Luna answered.

Once fully inside and having shut the door, Luan leaned the umbrella against the wall and Luna put down the trash bag, after which they then took off their raincoats and boots, revealing they had their sleepwear on underneath. Next, Luna opened up the bag and pulled out its contents, which included a couple of pillows and a blanket. Meanwhile, Luan was rummaging around the garage apparently looking for something.

"Hmm, I could have sworn that air mattress was stored around here somewhere..." She said while rooting around.

It took some doing, but Luan did succeeded in finding the air mattress in question in its deflated form. She pulled it out of storage while Luna approached from behind with a bicycle tire pump at hand.

"Why don't you go ahead and get things going with Lincoln?" Luna told Luan, pointing in the direction of their little brother, "I'll handle this from here."

Luan nodded affirmatively and headed over to where Lincoln was while Luna got to work on positioning and then pumping up the air mattress.

When Luan did come to Lincoln, he flinched anxiously away from eye contact or any touching as she tried reaching out to him.

"Lincoln? Hey, you all right?" Luan asked concernedly.

"Why are you two even here in the first place?" Lincoln inquired more bleakly, "Don't you know that I'm apparently bad luck? That should be more than enough to keep you away from me."

Luan reached out to him for a second time, and though he flinched again, he settled down a bit more as he felt her hand softly clamp down on his shoulder.

"Come on, don't say things like that." She said, "If you were really bad luck, would me and Luna put the effort in coming to you in the first place?"

Lincoln had to admit that Luan did have a point there. The times in which the rest of his family pushed him away to the point of sleeping outside of the house had damaged his trust of them somewhat. But now that at least two of his sisters were appearing to make an attempt to seemingly make amends did make him feel just a hint better, even if quite a bit of this whole mess was his own doing, too.

Letting out a breath of air, Lincoln turned back around to face Luan again. She had a warm, reassuring smile beckoning forth, which in turn caused him to give his own best effort in smiling back.

"Okay, dudes, things are all set for us."

Both Luan and Lincoln turned in Luna's direction upon her speaking to see that she had the air mattress fully inflated and set up in the middle of the garage floor. She also had taken the liberty in positioning the two pillows and the blanket that were brought along on top of that.

"It might be a bit of tight squeeze, but I'm sure we'll make deal with it." Luna said, feeling impressed with her handiwork.

Luan nodded before turning back to Lincoln and motioned for him to follow along and join both her and Luna on this makeshift bed space that had been put together. All three would take a seat on the mattress, with Luna and Luan being next to one another and Lincoln sitting just right in front of them.

"So, you've might have already figured out what me and Luna have got going on for us right now." Luan said.

"But before we get to that any further, we really need to clear up the air with regards to all this bad luck business." Luna added more somberly.

"I'm not sure what needs to be cleared up." Lincoln said in a mix of sadness and resentment, "I get accused of bad luck by Lynn and she turns our whole family against me and makes them all paranoid."

Luna reached out and patted Lincoln on the shoulder, "Listen, we get it, bro. You have every right to be miffed about all that's happened. What our fam has done to you is simply unacceptable and outta wack with who we are."

Luan nodded in agreement and followed her sister's actions by also patting her brother's other shoulder, "She's right, Lincoln. Plus, the more you think about it, how this whole mess got started doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Lynn losing one baseball game is no reason for her to accuse you of giving out bad luck to her just because it was the first time you attended one of her games. That's something that both me and Luna have sort of recognized for a little while now, like right before you were needlessly sentenced to spent the night outside."

Upon hearing that last statement, Lincoln felt dismayed. When Luan told him moments earlier that she and Luna wouldn't have come to him if they viewed him as bad luck, he assumed they came to that conclusion at some point after he was forced outside. Now hearing this admission that they felt this way prior to that distressing decision, he was feeling just a bit resentful than before.

"Wait, what?" Lincoln said, narrowing his eyes towards his sisters, "You both felt this way _before _I got thrown out here? Are you serious? If that's the case, then how come you didn't say anything?!"

Luna let out a long sigh, "I wish we knew, bro. I really do."

"The only reason I can think is that perhaps neither of us wanted to be seen by our family as 'that person' questioning the idea of you being bad luck and maybe they'd get on our case..." Luan opined, trailing off at the end.

Lincoln folded his arms and averted his gaze away from his sisters, "Well, you should have said something anyway. You could have spared me all the feelings that I've been going through since then."

He attempted to maintain his hardened rancorous stance, but admitting those feelings of grief made it difficult to do so. Groaning softly, Lincoln looked down and shook his head.

"I just don't get it..." He lamented quietly, "Why did things have to turn out like this? My own family...pushing me away. And for what? Because Lynn couldn't handle losing a single baseball game and she had to blame put some sort of blame on someone for it? It had to be me? Just...why?"

He sighed deeply and brought his hands up to his face. As he appeared to be deteriorating emotionally, his two sisters got a little closer to him.

"We're so sorry, Lincoln..." Luna expressed solemnly as she reached out stroked her brother's hair, "None of this should have ever happened. And you're right, we probably should've said something in your defense, and it shouldn't have mattered if our family wigged out on us if we did so long as you were spared any of this."

Lincoln groaned anxiously, "Well...it probably doesn't matter anyway, since I'm kind of partly to blame for this whole debacle and had all this coming in a sense."

Both of his sisters lightly gasped upon hearing him make such an assertion to the point they both lifted his head up so he can face them.

"Whoa, hold everything, Linc. What makes you think that _you _had anything to do with this? That's crazy talk, brah!" Luna said in mystification.

Luan agreed with that sentiment, "Yeah, there's no way you should be pinning any blame on yourself for what's happened, Lincoln. Every little bit of this is a result of Lynn planting the seed of bad luck into the ground until it sprouted and blossomed out of control and pollinated our family with that unfounded claim. She basically turned them from a garden variety family to one flowering with paranoia."

Luan grinned and was on the verge of a laughing fit, realizing the inadvertent litany of plant-based puns she'd woven together. However, she stopped herself short, thinking this wasn't the best time necessarily to be comedic when she should be focusing on letting Lincoln know he's not bad luck.

"But in all seriousness, please don't blame yourself, Lincoln. It's not helpful for you or anyone for that matter." She said while softly giving him a comforting caress of his cheek.

Lincoln pulled himself a little further from his sisters.

"No, seriously, you two don't understand. I really am partly to blame for this..." He said.

He took a moment to recuperate, then proceeded to confess his unfortunate role in the whole ordeal.

"I went along with every accusation of bad luck Lynn made and didn't even try to refute it, and I did it for such a stupid, selfish reason..."

The moment of recuperation was fleeting as Lincoln quickly felt himself spiraling back down into regret and unhappiness. He closed his eyes in order to again gather up some willpower, all while Luna and Luan looked on sadly as they waited for their brother to finish explaining his side of things.

"I only went along with everything just so I could have an excuse to not come along with any of our family's engagements and be able to stay home and do whatever I wanted, because I haven't had any free time for myself in weeks! At first I thought I was having fun with that, but soon it became so boring and I was having doubts about it, which only got worse each time I was told I can't come along to some outing or activity with everybody. I thought about coming clean at some point today, but then came tonight, with me being forbidden to sleep in my own room and being locked out of the house for the night..."

Lincoln opened his eyes, and as much as he hated it and didn't want this to happen, a glistening within was forming as holding things together just wasn't cutting it anymore while he tried to wrap his explanation up, getting a little choked up in the process.

"So you see, I d-did have this coming t-to some extent, and how couldn't I have? It was for one of the w-worst of r-r-reasons. I had what was coming t-to me, I really d-d-did…!"

What little barrier that held things together emotionally for Lincoln had its foundation smashed as a few tears began to crawl down his face and some gentle sniffles came along, too. That was the cue in the minds of his sisters to bring him over towards them into a twofold hug of theirs, with Luna primarily holding him against her as Luan put her arms around both of them from the side. Neither of them said anything in the meantime, as all they did was allowed their little brother to let everything out for a period of time while they both held on to him securely and in comfort.

However, even though both of them were willing in consoling him, it's not like they also couldn't hide the fact that there was some disappointment in him as soon as they heard his side of things.

"I had it coming…I had it coming..." Lincoln repeated a handful of times between soft cries.

Luna released another prolonged sigh, "Well, bro, I don't think Luan and I will pretend that lying to get out of important gigs of ours was a smart move on your part."

"Yeah, but if you really wanted to have some time for yourself, all you had to do was say something. I'm sure we all would have understood and made some accommodations." Luan added.

Lincoln pulled away slightly again, "Wait, you would have? I...I-I didn't think I could afford the luxury of doing so. Then again, after what I did, there's no way I'd deserve it anyway..."

He let out a shaky, weepy sigh before returning back fully within the embrace of his sisters for a little while more. Afterwards, everyone parted ways and sat across from each other again.

"Look, it may have been the wrong thing for you to lie to us like that, Lincoln, no question about it..." Luna began, "But be that as it may, I still don't think it completely excuses what our family's done to you, at least not to the extent that's happened. With that in mind, I'll let Luan finish explaining what we're going to do to make it up with you in our small way, though as she said earlier you've probably clued in already."

Luan nodded and then smiled at her brother, "To prove that we don't view you as bad luck anymore and to show we're sorry for what you've been through and for not saying anything in your defense, we're going to spend the night with you here if you think that's okay. I mean, all the work's already been done, but still, never hurts to make sure you're fine with this."

Lincoln smiled back as he wiped his eyes, "Oh, well...sure. I guess I can be fine with that. Thanks, you guys."

Sharing smiles right back at him, Luna and Luan moved aside and pulled the blanket down from their temporary bed space to allow Lincoln to attempt in getting comfortable right in the middle. This was followed by Luan coming over and settling down on the left side of Lincoln and Luna on the right before she pulled the blanket over all three of them.

Right as they were getting more comfortable with their sleep setup, the rain outside really started to come down hard and some more thunder rolled on.

"You know, I have to say that I do like the sound of the rain." Lincoln remarked.

"Same here, bro." Luna said in agreement, "It does make for a nice melody."

"Yeah, it certainly isn't drab, dull or _pouring _at all!" Luan added jovially.

Both Luna and Lincoln shifted their gazes over to their comedienne sister, as in this instance they were quite confused over the pun being made.

"Get it? Boring….pouring...'cause they rhyme and I used pouring in place of boring after saying drab and dull..." Luan attempted explaining, but gave up and sighed, "All right, I admit that one didn't land or _drop _in like I hoped."

She let out a light chuckle, as did Luna and Lincoln before they all tried to get some sleep.

However, they would be startled when the side door of the garage was barged open by a figure in a hooded sweatshirt and was closed just as quickly.

"Ugh, of course it started pouring buckets as soon as I stepped on out."

The figure pulled the hood of the sweatshirt down to reveal that the unexpected visitor was Lynn. She took the sweatshirt off entirely to shake and wring it out. Like when Luna and Luan arrived earlier, Lynn also had her sleepwear on underneath.

"Lynn? What are you doing here?" Lincoln asked.

"Well, it's pretty simple, Lincoln." Lynn began to respond, "There's something that I..."

She was turning to face Lincoln right in the middle of her sentence, but paused when she saw Luna and Luan crowded around him in their improvised bedding, who were just as confused over Lynn's arrival.

"Huh? Luna? Luan? What's going on? Why are you guys here?" Lynn wondered.

"We'd ask the same about you if we're honest." Luan answered.

"Heh, well...I, uh...wanted to tell Lincoln something, I guess..." Lynn stated, her speech pattern becoming more uneasy while she approached them.

Luna arched her eyebrow up, "You think that's a good idea, brah? Haven't you done enough damage?"

Lynn gulped, "Oh, that...well..."

"Well, what?" Luan asked scornfully, "What excuse are you gonna make up to justify what you've done to Lincoln all week long?"

"I...I..." Lynn stammered, "I don't have any excuses, but-"

"So you just called our bro bad luck for no reason at all? Or because your ego can't handle losing a single ballgame? Which is it, LJ?" Luna pressed her sister firmly.

Lynn wondered if there was any point at all in trying to explain things if all she's going to get were contemptuous statements such as those, justified or otherwise. Because of it, she sighed and began heading back.

"Now you're gonna leave just like that? This coming from the one who so arrogantly accused Lincoln of being at fault for that loss? Seems pretty cowardly if you ask me." Luan said so very cuttingly.

Normally, having the label of cowardice placed on her would be something Lynn wouldn't ever take laying down, but it wasn't like her fellow ponytailed sister was wrong in this case. Here she was, someone who was so willing to throw her own brother under the bus for a simple loss at a sporting event, something she should be more able to take gracefully, and yet apparently was now too spineless to even listen to any sort of potentially well deserved criticism of her choice behavior towards Lincoln.

But right as she was leaving, she heard the voice of that very same boy who bore her brazen bad luck charge call for her.

"Wait, hold on, Lynn!"

She turned to see Lincoln pull himself up from the bedding shared with Luna and Luan and came up to her.

"Don't go just yet. I want to hear what you've got to say." He said.

This resulted in both of their older sisters getting quizzical and even mildly perturbed looks on their faces.

"What? Seriously, Lincoln?" Luan asked.

"Even after what she's put you through, bro?" Luna added.

"Guys, please! Lay off her for a moment!" Lincoln said to both of them, "If I was able to give you both the chance to talk things over with me in regards to what's happened, I think it's fair that we should do the same with Lynn."

Luna and Luan looked at each other for a second, realizing that their little brother did have a valid point. They looked back over to him and Lynn, both of them sighing and decided they were willing to give his suggestion a try.

"Okay, you're right, Linc. We'll give her that chance." Luna said.

"Yeah, fair is fair, I suppose. If you're willing, we should be, too." Luan added in agreement.

With that settled, Lincoln waved over Lynn to join him on the mattress with their sisters.

"So, what did want to say to me, Lynn?" Lincoln wondered.

Lynn didn't immediately respond, spending several seconds fidgeting around and preventing from making direct eye contact with any of her present siblings. Eventually, she did mutter something very quietly and indistinctly.

"Huh? What was that, Lynn?" Luan inquired.

Lynn again muttered, but still not audible enough for anyone to hear her.

"Dude, speak up a little more." Luna implored her younger sister, "We can't really-"

"_I'm sorry, okay?!"_

That sudden outburst from Lynn followed with her lifting up her head and showing a look of complete sorrow on her face.

"Lincoln...I'm so sorry…!"

Such an admission from her took her siblings by surprise and for a moment, no one else spoke up while they processed everything.

"Wait, you're sorry?" Luan wondered.

"Am I hearing an echo here?" Lynn responded, briefly coming off mildly annoyed, "Yes, I'm sorry!"

"I don't know, Lynn. Is sorry really gonna cut it? Personally, I-" Luna was in the middle of saying, sounding unconvinced.

"Luna! What did we just promise Lincoln?" Luan interrupted her, lightly batting her older sister's shoulder.

Luna sighed and frowned, "Right, right, sorry. As you were, Lynn."

"Okay..." Lynn said, reorienting her attention back to her brother, "Listen, Lincoln...I have to admit that maybe it was wrong of me to charge you with bad luck after my game a few days ago, and truth be told...I've been feeling this way since like the middle of this week."

"Wait...since the middle of the week?" Lincoln questioned her in shock, "Really?"

"Yeah..." Lynn answered sadly, "And I'm guessing Luna and Luan are here because they don't think of you like so, too?"

Luan nodded, "That's right, but we only came to that conclusion only just a little before Lincoln got put outside. But if we heard you right, Lynn, you've doubted that claim during the middle of the week? How did this come about and more importantly, why didn't you say so at any point between then and now?"

"Well, I could also ask the same for you and Luna if what you're saying on your end is true, but that's nothing compared to my situation..." Lynn admitted.

She again took a moment to regroup and finally attempted to explain her side of the story.

"I think what made me begin wondering if I was wrong to call you bad luck was when you were excluded from some of our outings, Lincoln, especially the ones when we all went as a family. I have to admit that I was really starting to miss having you around. I called you bad luck mostly out of frustration due to the loss at the game and wanted to find any excuse to blame something or anything at all for it aside from myself or my team. Never did I anticipate our family would take such a claim so seriously and force you out of other activities and such."

Like Lincoln before her, Lynn was beginning to show subtle signs of having a hard time holding herself together, but she tried her best and pushed forward.

"As for why I didn't say anything sooner? Well, Luna sort of touched on it just a moment ago. My ego may have gotten in the way of fessing up, because not only would Lincoln be understandably upset at me should I confess to making up the bad luck accusation and wasted everyone's time with that claim, but then I'd have to admit that perhaps I'm really the reason for my team losing that game. Maybe we did have some bad luck on our side, but not because of any one person bringing it upon us. It may have been temporary, because we did win another pair of games this week, but each time I looked up at the stands during them, I have to admit that not seeing Lincoln among my family sort of made them feel less important."

Releasing a shuddered sigh, she was getting closer to losing it as she concluded her explanation.

"But what sealed it for me was tonight. Again, I didn't think our family would ever take this whole bad luck thing as seriously as they did, but locking you out? That was a step too far and I really wished I did say something then, but that dang pride in me once more held me back, so I didn't do anything still. Finally, a few minutes after this thunderstorm began, I finally kicked my pride to the curb, looked out the window to not see you there and was willing to brave the rain to come here, assuming that's where you holed yourself up. So once again...I'm so sorry for everything, Lincoln. Every single bit of this is my fault!"

And with that final admission, Lynn's eyes watered up and she began quietly sniffling. She turned herself away from her siblings in shame and scrunched into a ball.

For Luna and Luan's side of things, any animosity for their younger sister based on the events of the past week that formed tonight was completely gone upon seeing her break down. They both wanted to come over and console her like they did with Lincoln, but they were beaten to the punch on that front.

Shifting closer to Lynn himself, Lincoln made her reluctantly turn to face him. She saw that he was looking sorrowful as well, then he put his arms around her, which she did a couple of seconds later, regardless of feeling if she truly deserved such affection for everything.

"Lynn, I can forgive you for all that's happened." Lincoln said softly.

"But...but...but why?" Lynn stammered tearfully, "H-h-how can you s-so easily forgive me?"

"Because...you're not the only one who's to blame here..." Lincoln replied, "Because a lot of this is truly my fault, too."

The moment those words came out of his mouth, Lynn pulled herself away from Lincoln and looked into his eyes. At first, she seemed stunned, then her face morphed into that of some anger.

"Oh no...don't you dare do this to me!" She said testily.

Lincoln reared back some, "What do you mean?"

"I'm not playing this game, Lincoln! You're not going to pull this act when you sometimes act like something's your fault even when it isn't! I'm the one to blame, not you!" Lynn shouted in a strained voice.

"Whoa, hey, hey, hey, ease up some, LJ!" Luna said, putting a hand on her sister's shoulder, "He's not lying, you know."

"What…?" Lynn confusedly said.

"Yeah, Lincoln told us the very same thing before you came along, and maybe it's your turn to give him that chance in hearing him out." Luan recommended to her.

On that note, Lynn glanced back at her brother and softened her stance. As she did that, he took a deep breath and proceed to explain again his side of things.

"Lynn, you may have called me bad luck, but I made things worse because I willingly went along with everything just so I could have an excuse to not come along to any sort of family engagements and have some free time to myself. I know now that was the wrong way to go about things and I truly believe because of it, I share a good amount of the blame for this as well and for that, I'm sorry." He said fully in regret.

For the second time, Lincoln reached out and hugged Lynn right as he teared up for the second time. At the same time, Lynn was having a hard time processing him claiming any responsibility for the debacle that has occurred. Nevertheless, she hugged him again and joined in on crying again herself. Finally, as they witness this heartrending scene of regret between these two, Luna and Luan came along and put their arms around their younger siblings and held on to them for the next little while.

When it appeared that Lynn and Lincoln had settled down, their older sisters disengaged from the group embrace and let them have another moment in working out the past week's events.

"Lincoln...I'm not entirely sure how to take what you've told me, but no matter what, I'm really sorry again for my end of things." Lynn said.

"And I'm sorry for mine, too." Lincoln reciprocated, "Can we now say were good again?"

Lynn smiled and gently gave his shoulder a jab, "Always, Linc."

Lincoln smiled back before he and Lynn shared another brief hug.

"So, what exactly are you guys doing anyway with this setup if I may ask?" Lynn wondered.

"Well, the idea is that me and Luna wanted to stay the night with Lincoln as our way of making it up to him for when we went along with the bad luck stuff and just so that he wouldn't feel so lonely." Luan explained.

"You know, you can join us if you'd like, Lynn." Luna offered up.

"Ah...no thanks. You guys look plenty comfy yourselves." Lynn said with a chuckle, "Plus I told Lucy that I'd be back soon, since she knew about my plans to come out here and try to make things right, so I should be on my way."

With that said, Lynn stood up, walked on over to pick up and put back on her black hoodie and was about to head on out, but not before glancing back over.

"Oh, and Lincoln, I promise you that we'll make things right with the rest of our family tomorrow." She said with a smile.

After that promise was made, she opened the door, put the hood up and braved the elements again to head back inside the house.

Meanwhile, Lincoln rejoined his remaining sisters in their cramped makeshift bedding, now in a much better mood than before.

"Wow...I can't believe the turnaround with Lynn." He noted.

"Yeah, but now that I think of it, it isn't that crazy, bro. I mean, sure, what she did on her end wasn't so cool, but once you knocked it into us to hear her out, she really did redeem herself in our eyes." Luna said, "Underneath that tough sporty girl lies a genuinely good heart and honestly, we shouldn't think differently."

Lincoln agreed, "True, and though she can be rough and impulsive, I've never doubted within myself that she, like any of us, can be willing to admit to her own faults and do what it takes to try in making things right, like whatever she has planned for tomorrow."

He looked at both of his sisters and had a tiny frown on his face.

"Speaking of faults, for what it's worth, I want to again apologize for taking advantage of this bad luck nonsense for my own pursuits."

"It's no trouble, Linc. As long as you did come clean at some point like you said, I'd say that's the best we can ask for." Luna told him, stroking her hand along his back.

That frown reverting to a smile, Lincoln laid back down as did Luna and Luan while they tried to make the best of their incommodious, on the spot sleep situation.

"Oh, might at as well ask, but besides wanting to make it up to me and all, how did this whole idea of you two staying here with me come about anyway?" Lincoln curiously asked.

"Well, it was largely my idea to be honest." Luan answered, "At first, I only wanted to do this myself, but after some insistence from Luna, I let her come along, too."

Holding back a chuckle, she grinned deviously and leaned over to Lincoln to whisper something into his ear.

"But between you and me, I'd say Luna tagged along because she sometimes gets lonely if I'm not around in our room."

"I heard that, brah." Luna teasingly said, reaching out and lightly pushed her sister's forehead with her fingertips.

After that playful bit of teasing, finally the three of them got comfortable to the best of their ability in getting some sleep, with the now more gentle pattering of the rain helping out in that front.

* * *

In the morning that followed, Lincoln fluttered his eyes open. For a second, the surroundings of the garage looked befuddling, but the events of last night quickly came back to him. He sat up, stretched around a little and yawned.

"Well, good morning, Lincoln."

Hearing that voice belonging to Luan, he looked over in front of him to see her and Luna sitting across a couple of feet from where he was situated.

"Oh...good morning, guys." Lincoln returned the greeting, "Have you been up for a while now?"

"A little bit, yeah. We thought about waking you up at some point, but then we didn't want to rankle you in your slumber and wait until you got up on your own." Luna replied with a smile.

"Uh, okay then." Lincoln said somewhat confused, "Well, with that, wonder how Lynn is going to working things out with our family regarding all that's gone on, since that's been weighing on my mind the other night."

Coincidentally enough, the garage's side door opened up and like that other night, Lynn came on inside, drawing the surprised attention of her siblings.

"Hey, good morning, you guys." She said.

"Lynn? What brings you back here?" Luan wondered.

"Simple, I'm about to enact my game plan about how we're gonna fix up everything about the whole bad luck ridiculousness." Lynn responded.

Lincoln looked on feeling lost, "Uh...what kind of plan?"

Lynn smirked confidently, "You see, I have everyone else in our family gathered in the living room thinking I'm gonna lay out what will happen at my latest baseball game later on today. But little do they know that I'll be bringing you in so we can right the wrongs of these past few days."

"Wait...what? But won't they completely freak out when I do arrive?" Lincoln inquired anxiously.

"It doesn't matter, little bro." Lynn said, shaking her head, "One way or another, we're gonna get this settled between everyone, so why don't we hop to it? And that means both of you as well, Luna and Luan."

"Actually, why don't you dudes get a jump start and go right on ahead?" Luna suggested, "Me and Luan are gonna stick on by here for a bit so we can get all stuff we brought with us organized."

Lynn raised her eyebrow, but then she shrugged, "Whatever, I guess. But I really do want you guys there for everything, so make it quick. Now, let's get going, Lincoln."

Though still both confused and unsure about what Lynn was going with this, Lincoln stood up and joined along with her. She opened up the door and her brother almost stepped outside, only for a certain detail to catch his eye.

"Ugh, the grass looks pretty wet from last night's storm. Don't know if I want to step all over it and track stuff into the house, being barefoot and all." Lincoln observed.

"Eh, that won't be much trouble at all." Lynn said, crouching on down, "Hop aboard."

Showing that she wanted to carry him, Lincoln hitched a ride right on Lynn's back and she hauled him along until they reached the stairway leading up to the back door. Once she allowed her brother to get off of her, she began very cautiously creaking the door open, an action that Lincoln was puzzled by.

"Lynn, why are you…?" He tried to ask.

"Shh, zip it or you might give away everything!" Lynn advised him, putting her hand over his mouth.

He was still pretty lost about this whole situation, but Lincoln assumed he had to abide by his sister's command nonetheless.

Lynn quietly ushered Lincoln inside and then she ever so gently closed the door behind them.

"Okay, so the reason I'm telling you to be quiet is that no one in the living room knows I went outside to come get you." Lynn explained to her brother, "They think I'm in here to nab myself a protein shake before talking about today's game. So now what I want you to do is stick here for a moment and give you some sort of verbal cue to come along, then we'll go from there, got it?"

"Uh...sure?" Lincoln said tentatively.

Before he could have any more time in wondering how this will all go down, Lynn stood and first went over to the fridge to grab herself a protein shake, likely so that it can look convincing that she was in fact getting on. Next, she headed over to the living room and began addressing her family.

"All right, sorry that took me a little longer than expected. Had to pick out just the right one that'll help boost my energy reserves for the big playoff today. But before I go any further, I wanna say how much it means for me that you all come to my games. You're really what drives me to give it my all, and I do mean _all of those in my family._"

The extra emphasis in those last few words made Lincoln believe that was the verbal cue Lynn mentioned she'd use just a moment ago. Taking a deep breath, he slowly made is away into the living room, and like he potentially feared, his family didn't react that well to his arrival.

"Lincoln?!" Rita said in shock.

"What are you doing back inside?!" Lola shouted.

"Hey, cool it, everyone, would you?" Lynn said, "I went out to get him to first place to tell the truth."

"What?! But what about his bad luck, LJ?" Lynn Sr. asked worriedly.

"Yeah, you might be jinxing yourself by being near him!" Lana said.

Lynn Jr. let out annoyed sigh, "Look, I brought him back in because I want to talk about everything that's gone on and..."

Right as she was in the middle of her thought, everyone's attention was turned when Luna and Luan finally made their own entrances.

"Oh, hi Luna! Hi Luan! Wait, what were you guys doing in the kitchen? Weren't you still in your room?" Leni inquired curiously.

"Uh, no, we just came in from the backyard, dude." Luna answered.

"The backyard? What were you doing there?" Lucy asked.

"Well, it's because we spent the night with Lincoln in the garage and..." Luan was saying.

"Wait, what?! Why would you do that?!" Lana interjected.

Lola released a horrified gasp, "Then you both must be tainted by Lincoln's bad luck, too!"

Most everyone else gasped and started panicking and fretting in place. But one very displeased sports girl put a halt to it when she slammed her fist on the coffee table.

"_Dang it, will you all just can it and let me explain everything?!" _

Stunned into silence by Lynn's outburst, the family's attention was drawn to her as she exhaled before speaking again in a more calm tone.

"Okay, first of all, the reason Luna and Luan stayed with Lincoln overnight was because they both felt bad for him after he was made to sleep outside as well them regretting taking part in the events of keeping him out of recent outings of ours, and the reason I know this is that I too went outside and talked things over with them. You know why I did that? Because I wanted to talk with Lincoln specifically, and now that everyone's here, I can get back to what I was saying which is…."

Pausing for a second, Lynn closed her eyes and prepared for the worst before continuing.

"I was completely wrong in referring to him as bad luck. He isn't that at all and I completely made the whole thing up."

She sighed and opened up her eyes, expecting her family to be furious at her, perhaps rightly so. But instead, they looked at her with nothing but shock written on their faces. She took their pause in their reactions as reason for her to go on.

"Now the thing that's likely on your minds now is 'well, if that's true, how could you possibly call him that in the first place and when did you change your mind on that?" Well, I might've only said that to him because I was so frustrated with the loss of the baseball game from earlier in the week and in the moment I wanted to blame anyone or anything than myself or my team, and since Lincoln hadn't come to any other recent games of mine, I just decided to impulsively think he must've had something to do with that loss. But that changed midweek as I began missing having him around and never got around to saying anything sooner because I was too proud to confess any wrongdoing until last night, but I'm glad that I finally did."

Lynn glanced over to Lincoln, giving him a smile as did he in return, then she turned back and went on.

"And listen, I'll take full responsibility for calling him back luck and getting the ball rolling, but honestly, I'm not exactly pleased with a lot of you, either. I never expected you to react in the paranoid fashion that you did, which was one of the reasons besides missing Lincoln in general that made me start regretting everything, and there are a handful of you I've become more disappointed at than others, like you for example, Lori."

"Huh, what now?" Lori said, raising her eyebrow as that accusation catching her off guard.

"I mean, you are the oldest among our sibling group and being the oldest I would think means you having the common sense to believe that something like Lincoln being called bad luck may be complete bunk!" Lynn explained.

Lori though over her younger sister's words over for a moment, then she prepared her own response.

"Well, for what it's worth, maybe I literally didn't by into the whole bad luck stuff my from the start, and I would've told Lincoln that, but the fact he wrecked my golf clubs might've made me too upset at him to do so. Plus, regardless of that, I figure he would be smart enough to know there's no truth to such a claim, though I did find it suspicious he didn't say much himself as far as I know." She said, turning her attention to him near the end.

Lincoln laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head, "Well, truthfully, there's a reason for that, Lori, because I..."

"Hold that thought, Lincoln." Lynn interrupted him, "I still need get a couple of things out there myself."

Next, she turned her sights over to the second youngest of the siblings.

"Lisa, there's something I'd like to say to you now. I can say with absolute certainty that you are the smartest person in this family, which is why your reactions to all of this is all the more confounding. You use science to dismiss things like superstition quite easily, like that time you waved off each of Lucy's fortunes during our trip to Grand Venture State Park. Yet somehow you believed in the whole bad luck shtick that I kicked off just like that?"

Like Lori before her, Lisa contemplated what had been said by Lynn and she too had her own realization.

"I must concede the point you've made, my fifth eldest sibling." She admitted with a sigh, "I should've seen through such piffle and hokum, but alas, the only theorem I can muster up for such lack thereof was conforming to the mass hysteria and groupthink that unfortunately gripped this whole household, and for that, I suppose I owe my elder and only brother an apology for that."

Lincoln smiled a little, "It's okay, Lisa, but speaking of apologies, I should be-"

Lynn held her hand up towards him and made her buzzer noise, "One more thing and I'll finally let you have the floor, Lincoln."

Finally, she directed her attention to those who really recently earned her dissatisfaction the most.

"But above all else, there no people I've become more disappointed at than you, Mom and Dad. Looking back, I'm amazed you didn't come down on me once I accused Lincoln of being bad luck. I'd imagine Mom would've been all stern like 'young lady, what did you just say?!', then Dad might've come in and followed that up with perhaps something like 'LJ, I can understand being upset about losing a ballgame, but calling your brother bad luck is not the way to handle things!'. Instead, nothing! Worse yet, you said nothing when Lincoln was made to spend the night outside, all while a friggin' _thunderstorm_ rolled along! Neither of you, or anybody besides apparently myself, Luna and Luan noticed that?! I mean, jeez, I'm not intentionally trying to make you all feel bad or make it sound like the three of us were the only ones who cared about him in that moment, but dang it, really now?"

Those last three thoughts really got under Lynn's skin if her agitated demeanor when delivering them were anything to go by, and to their credit, her parents were starting to look remorseful on their part.

"You know what, you're totally right, Lynn." Rita confessed after a heavy sigh, "Come to think of it, your father and I really dropped the ball here, and that's with everyone, not just you or Lincoln."

"I'm in agreement." Lynn Sr. added sorrowfully, "Maybe it took you driving it into us just now, LJ, but at the same time, we should have done a better job handling this mess, just like when we should've done more stepping in during the fiasco with the sister fight protocol and others instances when things really got out of hand."

He sniffled, eyes welling up in tears, as the most trouble detail his namesake daughter brought up really began to sink in.

"And now that you mention it...how could we possibly been so irresponsible enough to allow our only son to have him be made to stay outside in the rain? Even if he managed to take shelter in the garage, that initial idea of...of him..."

The image was too hard for Lynn Sr. to bear. His sniffling became outright sobbing, while Rita draped an arm around as she wasn't holding up that much better herself. She then looked to that very son of theirs they feel like they completely failed.

"Lincoln, can you come over here for a minute?" She requested.

He acquiesced to his mother's request, joining in by sitting between her and his father in the couch.

"Listen, honey, we're so sorry about all that's happened these past few days. It would be one thing if any of your sisters were the only ones who did such things, which would still be reprehensible if that were the case, and they did play their parts in everything in any event." Rita said, sharing a disapproving look to each of her daughters.

For their part, all of the girls had regret written on their faces, even Luna, Luan and Lynn despite their own efforts in making it up to Lincoln, for they too still nevertheless had a role in last night's unconscionable act just as their mother said. However, Rita sighed, as she knew that they ultimately didn't share all the blame.

"But either way, your father and I don''t have a lot of room to complain because we share the bulk of the responsibility for what happened last night in particular. That was borderline neglect on our part and no matter if we got swept up in the hysteria like Lisa suggested, that doesn't excuse you having to be put out to the backyard."

"We...we...we really...failed as parents, son." Lynn Sr. added, trying to regain his composure, "But we'll try to be better...and….though we'll understand if you hold any sort of resentment against us for a little while...we can only hope you can forgive us."

Lincoln didn't give it a second thought, "Of course I can, Mom and Dad."

He hugged them both immediately afterward. The fact that their son so easily forgave them just like that took Lynn Sr. and Rita off guard, but that didn't prevent them from hugging their son in return, all while the girls watched on with smiles on their faces.

"Now, it sounded like before Lynn Jr. cut you off twice, there was something you wanted to say, Lincoln?" Lynn Sr. inquired.

Lincoln nodded somberly, "Yes, I do..."

He got off from the couch and stood in the center of the living room so he could face everyone. Taking a few seconds to work up that last little bit of willpower, he inhaled and exhaled, then he proceeded to bring up his side of the week's unfortunate events.

"Listen, I did not like it when Lynn called me bad luck after her baseball game. It was baseless, out of line and even hurtful to a degree. Yet despite that, just her saying that would not be enough for you all to act how you did...if it weren't for me, because I share some blame for all this."

Aside from Luna, Luan and Lynn Jr., that admission completely stunned his family.

"What?! What on earth makes you say that, Lincoln? You're the real victim in all this!" Lynn Sr. said absolutely befuddled.

"No, not entirely, Dad…" Lincoln disagreed, "Because you see, aside for the brief moment Lynn made that claim, I didn't even try in refuting being called bad luck and even flaunted it around all so I can have an excuse to not be brought along to whatever engagements or events any of you have. See, I've had next to no free time in these past few weeks and once my nonexistent 'bad luck' seemed to take a hold around here, I selfishly used it to my advantage just so I could stay home."

As he confessed to everything, Lincoln admittedly had difficultly maintaining eye contact with his family as the guilt for his actions was getting to him. He closed his eyes, feel to his knees and sighed depressingly. Only when he felt a pair of hands on his shoulders did he look back up to see his mother kneeling down in front of him.

"Sweetie, if all of this is true and if you really wanted some time for yourself, why couldn't you have said something sooner?" Rita asked, "It's not like everyone is to be compelled to attend every little event there is. Your sisters can vouch on that, right, girls?"

Lincoln looked on as each of his sisters agreed with what their mother just said, which if anything made him feel just that little bit worse and made his choices appear all the more pointless in that moment.

"Hold up, you guys _don't_ go to everything engagement of ours? I...I...I didn't know that." Lincoln said, now having his own moment of shock, "But as to why I didn't say anything, Mom, I guess maybe I was worried that if I did request not to go to any select events, I'd get some kind of lecture about how I'm letting down everyone in my family who does go. Then again, with the lengths I went to lie about having bad luck, I probably did let you all down and in a sense, perhaps I did deserve what's happened to me."

Rita brought Lincoln into her arms, "No, no, no, don't say that, Lincoln. Yes, I'll admit and speak for everyone that lying about something like this was not something you should have ever done. But like your father and I said, nothing justified you being forced outside and we are relieved that despite it raining outside, you did manage to find adequate shelter and we're lucky enough to have some of your sisters to keep you company. Call it an act of serendipity if you will."

She shared a quick glance with the two daughters of hers who did stay with Lincoln that night, plus the one who was finally worked up the courage to confess that her charge of bad luck was unneeded, then she let go of her son and then his father joined alongside him.

"Now, if you're wondering if there will be any sort of consequences for lying to us, I think for now what you've been through may have been enough." Rita said.

Lynn Sr. nodded and put a hand on his son's back. "I'd say so, too. But the only thing we can ask of you, Lincoln, is that if you ever need some free time, just tell us and we'll try to work something out."

"Yeah, I'll do that in the future, I promise you all." Lincoln said affirmatively, "And I'm sorry for not being more truthful from the start."

"And I'm sorry again for my end of things, too." Lynn Jr. stated as she quickly came over to her brother, "And in the future, I won't demand against your will that you come to any of my games if you don't want to, or do anything stupid like threatening you with my baseball bat like I did with for the earlier game."

When that little detail slipped, everyone but Lincoln gasped.

"Oh, heh...yeah, I did that, too." She admitted with a weak, nervous laugh, "But if it makes you all feel any better, that was probably just an empty threat and I'd _never, ever_ seriously hurt him like that to get my way. So, uh...sorry."

She was perhaps just about to be on the receiving end on a series of chastising from her family, but Lincoln cut them off at the pass.

"Eh, that's okay, Lynn. I probably thought the same thing that you wouldn't do that myself. You're much better than that despite what others might think." He said.

Lynn smiled, "Well...thanks for that, little bro. That means a lot coming from you. But anyway, there's one other thing I want to say. Just in case anyone still has doubts about how sorry I am for all this or if any of you are frankly crazy enough to still think he's bad luck..."

She turned to her brother and put her hands on his shoulders.

"Lincoln, assuming you want to, I'd like you to come to today's baseball game along with everyone else, because nothing else matters to me more than knowing that everyone in my family is in attendance to be by my side and encouraging me to give it my all."

Lincoln smiled and threw his arms around his sister, "You know what...I'd love to come, Lynn."

Positively elated with that answer, Lynn returned the embrace of her brother, and sure enough, the rest of their family joined in as well, happy and delighted that this awfulness with bad luck and such was behind them. Once again, it goes to show that anything calamitous can be thrown in their direction, but they will have the power to feel regrets, make apologies, seek forgiveness and achieve reconciliation, because they were as close as any family as one could ever find, and nothing can or will ever change that.

* * *

**Okay, there we go then. Now, on to that explanation I owed you. **

**As you may have noticed, this was the second story of mine in a row based on a most despised episode where Luna and Luan factored in heavily in helping out with Lincoln, and as I said, that may come off as suspect. I will say for the full sake of disclosure that Luna, Luan and Lincoln in that exact order are my three favorites of the siblings, with Lynn also being my fifth favorite and in case you are wondering who'd round things out for a top 5, Lori would occupy the fourth spot. But I want to say definitively that favoritism hardly was a factor in choosing who I wanted to talk it out with Lincoln and such. I guess my thought process, should you call it that, was going through a process of elimination of who could possibly be most sympathetic to Lincoln's plight, however much was his own fault. My thinking is that there were those who may be upset enough at him (Lori), easily dense enough to by into (Leni), just young enough to (Lucy, Lana, Lola and Lily) and willing to chuck whatever principles out the window they have (Lisa) to believe the bad luck nonsense, which whittled things down to Luna, Luan and even Lynn when she had her part. This might not be the best of explanations I will wholly concede, but it's better to have something, no matter how far fetched, than being just like "accept it and deal with it", which is obviously an unbecoming attitude and way to handle things. **

**And finally, yes, I know this story appears to breach the 10,000 word mark I set for myself, but that is only because of the author's notes added in and the actual story itself is just below that. Again, the reason put such a limit on myself is that it sounds like a nice number to set as a benchmark of sorts and having author's notes go beyond that doesn't really count in my mind.**

**Whew, I think that's all. Next up in the second part...yes, there's is a second part to this! Yep, this is another two-shot of mine and that'll come when it's ready!**


	2. Heartbreak and Reforged Bonds

**Hey, finally this second and final part has come about! **

**Compared to the first part, this one puts a much heavier focus on Lynn, with Lincoln in a secondary role and Luna and Luan's roles being much more tertiary in nature.**

**Oh, and there's an insane amount of symbolism with this being posted today. When this story was originally published, it was my thirteenth overall fanfic, and now this second part is being put out there on Friday the 13th (which I also learned just yesterday marks the three year anniversary of "No Such Luck" airing) thirteen days after the first part...oh, and Lynn herself is 13 years old, too.**

**...what the hell? O_o **

**Okay, in all honesty, once I learned all that yesterday, I deliberately waited until today to put this out there, but still, amazing how all that lined up!**

**Well, with all of that said, let's us delve in.**

_**The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.**_

* * *

As the morning went on, Lincoln had gotten a shower and dressed up for the day. During that time, the barricades that were stunningly installed on his bedroom door were removed so he could return inside. He was relieved to be back within the walls of his room and wanted to take in the solitude that came with it for a little while.

While relaxing within, he recapped in his mind the past several hours of events that all but completely reversed what transpired since the beginning of the week. From Luna and Luan's overnight stay, to Lynn admitting to her wrongdoing and him clearing his own conscience by confessing to his own misdeed, he was far and away in better spirits compared to before. Add in wanting to support Lynn in her baseball game that will take place in a couple hours time and he felt like nothing could go wrong from here on out.

Well, almost nothing.

Speaking of the game, there was this small remaining worry inside of Lincoln that could emerge and get stronger should the worst happen, but he didn't want it to override him for the time being.

For the next two hours, Lincoln went on with some much needed quality time with some comics and games on his laptop. Then, he heard knocking on his door and his father speaking.

"Hey, Lincoln, it's time to get going for the game!" Lynn Sr. said.

"Okay, I'll be on my way!" Lincoln answered back.

Taking a deep breath, he smiled and suppressed whatever worries had tried to materialize earlier on before leaving his room, stepping out of the house and joined with his family who were all waiting near Vanzilla. Right as he came closer, he was practically tackled to the ground rather suddenly by his twin younger sisters while they were hugging him.

"We're so glad you're coming with us, Lincoln!" Lana said.

"Yeah, and we're sorry for thinking you were bad luck, too." Lola added.

Lincoln smiled and put his arms around both of them, "Don't worry about it. Let's just focus instead on the game and being there for Lynn as a family, okay?"

As he was helped up to his feet by the twins, Lincoln shared a look with Lynn, all clad in her uniform, where she showed an approving smile of her own in thanks for those words.

"All right, let's get going, everyone!" Lynn Sr. said.

With that said, the family piled into inside Vanzilla, with Lincoln in his case sitting in the first row of passenger seats in the back along with Leni, Lucy and Lily, while Luna, Luan and Lisa took up the second row and finally Lori, Lynn, Lana and Lola occupied the last row at the very end.

The drive to the ballpark was largely uneventful, though everyone was in high spirits in the hopes that the game will go in favor of Lynn's team.

However, Lincoln again had that strange creeping sensation within him similar to what he felt a couple of hours earlier. He had an uneasy look on his face, one that didn't go unnoticed to those sisters he was seated with, and also Rita as well when she looked at the rear view and turned over to him.

"Lincoln, is there something wrong?" She asked.

"Huh?" Lincoln uttered, looking up to his mother, "No, everything's good, Mom."

"You sure about that? Because I'm getting this sense that you are dispirited." Lucy said.

"Yeah, and you looked kind of sad, too." Leni added, perhaps unaware that's pretty much what her younger sister just said.

"No, I'm good, I'm telling you all." Lincoln insisted on, "I guess I'm still a little worn out from everything that's happened particularly since last night and this morning is all. So please, I insist that everything's good."

"Inkin?" Lily babbled curiously.

Lincoln turned to his baby sister and smiled, "Really, it's okay, Lily. Don't you go worrying on me, too, okay?"

Though there was that small spot of skepticism, no one else chose to press Lincoln further and let the matter be dropped for now.

A few minutes later, the Louds, all thirteen of them this time around, had arrived at the ballpark. While most everyone headed filed out together, Lynn ventured out on her own to join up with her team, though she did turn around and gave some last minute parting words.

"Well, this is it, guys, the playoffs. Wish me luck." She said.

Although she received a whole assortment of encouragement from her family, one line coming from Lincoln struck a poignant chord to her.

"No need for luck, Lynn. You have all the natural talent and drive in the world to lead your team to victory." He said.

So appreciative of those words was Lynn, she came back over for a second, lightly jabbed her brother on the shoulder, then she smiled and winked at him.

"Thanks for that...and thanks for coming, too, Lincoln. This really does mean so much to me." She told him in earnest.

Without further delay, Lynn marched off with an added confident stride in the hopes to turn Lincoln's words with matching action.

Meanwhile, the rest of the family went along with getting snacks, drinks and other goods before taking their seats in within the stands. It was arrangement of them taking up two rows with six of them occupying seating, with Lori, Leni, Lynn Sr., Rita with Lily on her lap and Lola in one row, and Luan, Lisa, Lucy, Luna, Lincoln and Lana taking up another row just in front.

Finally, following the final moments of preparation, the playoff game between the Royal Woods Squirrels and the Beaverton Soaring Chipmunks was about to commence.

The first inning was largely unremarkable, but there was a curiosity raised among the Loud family, namely the position Lynn had taken up in the field.

"Uh, honey, is Lynn supposed to be out there?" Rita asked her husband.

"Not typically from what we usually see, no." Lynn Sr. replied, being just as perplexed, "Usually she's supposed to be the pitcher, not over in the outfield."

Indeed, in a deviation from the norm, Lynn Jr. had been positioned as a center outfielder for this game. Though different, the family didn't make that much further of deal over it and simply watched the game as it proceed.

The second inning had a little more action than the first, though said action didn't benefit the Squirrels. Lynn was at bat while a pair of her teammates were on first and second base, and thought she made solid contact, the ball was quickly caught by the Beaverton shortstop and then those aforementioned teammates were picked off in short order.

By the third inning, things really started to get cooking. Though Beaverton scored a pair of runs, Royal Woods answered back in a big way. When it was Lynn's turn at bat again, she managed to rectify the rapid events of the last inning by hitting a home run, plus scoring a pair of RBIs in the process and putting the Squirrels ahead 3-2.

"Whoo hoo, yeah!" Lana shouted happily.

"Yay! Go, Lynn!" Leni cheered.

"Hooray..." Lucy tried her best in showing verbal approval, though she really was happy for her older sister's efforts.

The fourth inning was pretty much a repeat of the first, with was to say it didn't have much to write home about and the score remained the same.

But that changed in the fifth inning. Beaverton climbed back and took the lead at 4-3. That lead would widen to 5-3 thanks an RBI as a result of a stunning moment of misfortune on Lynn's part. At one point when a fly ball was coming in her direction, she assumed that she'd have this one in the bag easily. But somehow, the ball simple bounced and rolled right out of her glove, and the momentary pause of her being befuddled over how that happened before she picked it up and thrown it allowed for a runner from second base to make it all the way to home plate, in addition to the batter also to arrive at second base.

"Hmm...as someone who admittedly doesn't dabble in or even so much as give such recreational athletics a passing glace, even I can say that it boggles the mind how a so-called 'fly ball' like that could easily slip out of Lynn's grasp just now, given her proven acumen and track record." Lisa observed.

"Yeah, you'd think with she of all people would catch a _fly _ball no problem if it was _buzzing _towards her!" Luan joked and laughed in typical fashion afterward, "Get it?"

Judging by the disinterested looks from her family, they didn't get it nor did they approve.

"What? Am I not allowed to joke at sporting events all of a sudden?" She inquired.

"I think it's more of a case of it literally not being the best of ideas to make jokes at the expense of Lynn if she slips up." Lori posited to her.

"I don't know about that..." Luan disagreed, but then she sighed, "But seriously, that did seem odd that she didn't catch the ball like that. I really thought she had it."

That curiosity was something Lincoln paid attention to as well, though he chose not to say anything himself. He simply wrote it off as a one off and believed his sister's usual sublime sporting skills will reveal themselves again in due time.

The sixth inning saw Royal Woods claw back from the deficit of the previous inning and tied the score up at 5 all, though Lynn herself didn't contribute to it.

But then came the seventh inning, where one of a pair of horrific blunders occurred that changed the course of the game, as well as the morale for some for the worst. As Lynn once again stepped up to the plate, something seemed really off about her. First she swung and missed the ball by a good several inches for strike one. Then for strike two, she swung so wildly that she spun herself around a pair of times, leaving her disorientated for a moment. But worst of all, strike three came about when she swung so hard, she carelessly forewent maintaining a grip on the bat and dangerously had it slung out of her hands, causing it to hurtle over to the stands and nearly at her family had it not narrowly banged against the lower wall instead. Not wasting a second in the aftermath, she dashed close over to them.

"Oh no, I'm so, so sorry, guys!" Lynn said to them hysterically.

"Uh...it's...it's all right, LJ..." Lynn Sr. said, short on breath and chuckling nervously, "At least no one got hurt, right?"

"Just...keep a….better grip...on that bat...please?" Rita added, holding on to Lily for dear life.

Lynn Jr. tried smiling and keeping an upbeat posture again, "Uh...right, of course."

As she went back over to rejoin the game, the family released one big sigh of relief to quell their nerves from what could've been nearly been a potentially serious accident.

For Lincoln's case, though, he wasn't actually that much better. Aside from the obvious hair-raising incident of just now, that feeling he'd been getting twice before today had been ramping up significantly and he had to voice a concern.

"Hey, guys?" He inquired, "Was Lynn like this at all during those couple of games I missed?"

"Not that I can remember, bro, no." Luna replied, "She had a couple of flub ups, but nothing close to what's been going on today."

That response didn't help in tamping down Lincoln's mood whatsoever. He gulped and only hoped things would improve from here.

But what came next diminished that hope a little more. Though what happened next was certainly less dangerous, it may have been significantly more embarrassing.

As the eighth inning rolled on, the mind boggles at what befell Lynn next. When another ball was sent her way, she tried a diving catch, but missed by a couple of inches. She went to pick it up, but inexplicably she took one step too far before stepping and slipping on the ball, falling down face first. After that, she bolted back up to her feet, retrieved it and threw it hard enough for her to fall down again. By the time she looked up, Lynn realized she threw the ball to the wrong teammate at second base, while the batter who it had already rounded past third and made it home, resulting in an incredibly rare inside-the-park home run, plus an additional RBI from another player from first base who made it just in the nick of time, increasing the tally in favor of Beaverton to 7-5.

"What the…?" Lola uttered in a rare loss for words, but something did come to mind momentarily, "That was...kind of graceless of Lynn."

"Lola, that's not really a nice way of putting it." Rita said with mild disapproval.

"What? Sometimes the truth isn't pretty." Lola tried arguing in her defense.

"I know, but maybe this isn't the right time, sweetie." Rita said, putting her hand on her daughter's head.

For what it's worth, Lola acquiesced and groaned uneasily, sharing in the growing concern of Lynn's shockingly bad run of plays.

But her reaction might've been nothing compared to that of Lincoln. The series of mishaps on the field for Lynn appeared to seal his building worries since the morning to the point he started breathing shakily.

"Hey, what's wrong, little bro?" Luna asked him.

"This was a bad idea..." Lincoln said between breaths, "Maybe I shouldn't have come after all. I'm clearly not helping Lynn out by being here."

Lynn Sr. reached out and put a hand on his son's back, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up there, sport. Don't try suggesting you being here as anything to do with your sister's performance. This is probably just a huge coincidence and nothing more."

Lincoln laughed derisively, "Yeah, it's a coincidence, all right. She's doing bad right as I'm coincidentally attending this game. And Luna said it herself earlier that Lynn wasn't this bad the last couple of times around, and oh yeah, I wasn't around for them. What should that tell you?"

"Absolutely nothing!" Luna emphasized to her brother, "Dude, you're overthinking this. If you are even trying to imply or dredge up this bad luck insanity again, rid yourself of that right now! We all agreed this morning that it's total bunk like Lynn herself said, so just relax, okay?"

He wish that he could be optimistic and push such thoughts out, but Lincoln seemed to suddenly become a total believer in something he himself not only didn't buy into from the start, but used to his advantage. All of this combined for him to pull his knees up and buried his face into them, all as he groaned distressingly.

"Lincoln, please don't let something like this get to you. I'm sure things will get better for Lynn before the game is over, you'll see." Rita said to him reassuringly.

Hoping to relieve him a little more, Luna put an arm around Lincoln and Lana on her end held on to her brother's left arm and leaned her head on his shoulder.

At long last, the ninth inning arrived and once more, Royal Woods made something of a comeback, bringing the score to up to 8-7 in their favor. But on the other side of the coin, yet another mystifying error on Lynn's part came about, although at least this one could be excused as mere chance than poor performance. When a Beaverton batter knocked a long one down her direction, Lynn seemed primed in catching before the ball could fly out of the park. She leaped up and everything appeared to line up for a spectacular game closing catch...until the ball simply bumped off the tip of her glove and barely over the wall for a home run and tying the score up to 8 runs each. By this point, Lynn couldn't contain her frustrations anymore as growled and banged her fist against the wall. The game in regulation ended in such, necessitating extra innings.

"Whoa, good gravy, this game!" Lynn Sr. said in disbelief.

"I know, right?" Lori added, "Normally I'm not into baseball, but even I'm literally on the edge of my seat for this!"

Most everyone in the family was also hyped about the incredible back and forth nature of the game and though he was disappointed over the fact that his sister couldn't make that last catch, even Lincoln seemed to be getting enthralled, believing now there was still a chance things could go the Squirrels' way.

After some respite, the teams returned to action for a tenth inning. Not a whole lot of note happened at first, though Beaverton scored one run that brought up the score 9-8 in their favor. Then a while later, when the Squirrels' were on offense, Lynn would be at bat again. Right as she did, some added encouragement began to come her way.

"Come on, Lynn! You can do this!"

She looked over to the stands and saw Lincoln standing up on his seat throwing his arms up and pumping his fists in the air.

"Lynn! Lynn! Lynn!"

He lead his family in a group chant of her name, even getting several additional attendees to join in, too. Though her confidence was a bit shaken thanks to the blunders on her part, Lynn had a big smile on her face and steeled her nerves.

However, she would fail to make contact twice and racked up the corresponding number of strikes. But when the ball was pitched a third time, Lynn blasted it hard down field and it looked like a home run, and the victory, was guaranteed. She began rounding the bases as the crowd was going nuts. She felt positively elated as if the botches from earlier were a distant memory.

When she made it to home plate, Lynn roared victoriously and proceeded to display one of her many different victory dances. But she quickly noticed that something was off. No one else from her team was rushing in to congratulate her and the crowd had become deathly quiet.

"Huh? What's up?" She asked out loud.

"You're out, that's what's up!"

Lynn couldn't believe her ears, but her eyes soon confirmed that stunning claim. She looked downfield and saw that the center outfielder, that very same position she's been struggling with all game long, had somehow caught the ball and based on the dazed sitting position, perhaps had done so in a similar manner like Lynn failed to do one inning earlier. Not only that, she only just realized it was the last out of the inning, and for that matter, the game as a whole. It appeared to finally dawn on Beaverton themselves and as everything was sitting in, they began celebrating raucously as they had won the playoffs.

In a complete loss of words, Lynn's face became blank. She silently took off her batting helmet, dropped it casually on the ground and walked off.

Over at the stands, her family was likewise in complete shock over the preceding turn of events. They had little time to discuss what happened, though, when a bloodcurdling scream rattled their eardrums. Such a bellowing outcry emanated from the Squirrels' dugout and they knew that it belonged to Lynn. The scream was sustained for close to ten seconds before it ever so slowly transitioned into several hysterical sobs. Though they didn't have the best view from where they stood, the Loud family could see all of Lynn's teammates huddling around her, likely trying to console her.

A short time later, as the crowd dispersed and made their way home, the Louds stuck behind for a while, hoping that Lynn would rejoin them on her own volition. But a couple of minutes passed on and she didn't return, nor could they see her in the dugout where she last was. Concerned about her whereabouts, the family commenced a search.

It didn't take took long, as Lynn was found all by herself in a small wooded area just beyond the parking lot scrunched up and her head buried into her knees.

"Kids, let us handle this, okay?" Rita advised them.

Handing Lily over to Leni, she and Lynn Sr. walked on over to their devastated daughter. Both crouched down next to her and she looked up upon sensing their presence. Her face already stained in tears, she resumed in weeping softly just as her parents pulled her into a joint embrace.

"It's okay, honey, don't beat yourself up like this." Rita soothingly said.

"You gave it your absolute best like you said this morning and that's all we ever want out of you." Lynn Sr. added.

While this was going on, the siblings watched from a distance feeling absolutely crestfallen for their sister. Never had they witnessed her so broken up about a loss in a sporting event, both now and just moments after the game wrapped up.

When she finally felt like she was ready, Lynn rejoined with everyone else. As she did, Lincoln attempted in trying to talk to her, but his efforts were rejected with half-hearted waving and bats of her hand.

"Don't talk to me...or be near me for that matter..." She told him.

Her voice carried no hostility or malice, but still made for a dejecting feeling for Lincoln. It was becoming apparent at least in his mind that his mere presence today must have something to do with how out of pace Lynn's performance was, and her advising him to stay away began sealing that idea, despite again the lack of spitefulness in saying that to him.

The drive back home was done almost entirely in silence and the seating arrangement was largely the same as it was from before. Midway through, Lincoln chose to peer over from his seat and look back to the end of Vanzilla. He could see that Lori was trying to console Lynn, and the second the latter took a moment to look around to see her brother, she immediately and tearfully averted her gaze, burying her face into Lori's chest. Once that happened, Lincoln slumped back down on his seat and sighed.

The moment the family returned home a little bit later, Lynn was the very first to get out of Vanzilla, head on inside the house and made a break for her room. Lincoln tried following along and tried in vain once more in talking to her, but again to no avail. With not that much hope in him for now, he too simply went to his room, where he flopped onto his bed face first into his pillow and groaned.

"Lincoln?"

A gentle knocking on his door and the concerned voice of Leni weren't enough for him to sit back up. Regardless, his second oldest sister still let herself in and sat down by his side.

"What are you doing here, Leni?" Lincoln asked as he turned his head just enough to face her.

"I wanted to check up on you, because you looked so sad on the way back home. I wanted to say something then, but maybe I wanted to wait until I could talk to you alone." Leni answered.

She reached out and tried gently in encouraging him to sit up and come closer to her. He did after some hesitance and no sooner then when that happened did Leni bring Lincoln right into a soft, comfortable embrace. He didn't hug her back, only letting himself be taken in by her tranquil touch, something he likely needed following what just happened at the ballpark and how his morning worries were coming to fruition.

"Are you sad about Lynn losing?" Leni asked, though that seemed more than too obvious.

"Yeah..." Lincoln replied listlessly, "Aren't we all, though? This was such an important game for her..."

Leni nodded and embraced him a little more, "I know, but something else must be making you sad, too. You looked that way earlier when we were on our way there and even though you said nothing was wrong, I know you better than that, Lincoln. What's going on? You can tell me."

He didn't say anything for a little bit, only sighing in a prolonged manner. Eventually, he did let in on what's been bothering him just recently and really since the morning before leaving.

"Well, there's a chance you might've overheard me saying this at the game, but if you didn't, I said out loud right as Lynn really started faltering near the end that me being there couldn't have been helping. After all, Luna told me she didn't mess up that badly in the two games before this most recent one...and before I go any further, can you confirm that was the case?" Lincoln wondered, pulling away just enough to face his sister.

"Um...yeah, she did play, like, really, really well and stuff." Leni answered, "But that's not important right now, because I really wanna know what's making you sad besides Lynn losing."

Lincoln groaned anxiously, "Actually, knowing that for sure now _is_ pretty important, Leni. Just as I said, it makes me believe attending the game today didn't help her chances, and I know you must've seen this, then when I tried talking to her just before we came back home, she straight up told me to stay away from her. Granted, she didn't say it with any hostility, but that moment made me think...after today, maybe there really was something to this bad luck stuff after all."

"No, please don't think like that, Linky..." Leni assured him, bringing him back fully into her arms, "You're not bad luck, and speaking of which, I've should've know better than to believe that earlier this week..."

As Leni had said that, she started sniffling lightly. Just as if Lincoln needed any more reasons to feel bad, those heartrending sounds made his eyes tear up. He tried in saying something, but Leni had more to say herself.

"Lincoln, I know that I have this...you know, thingy where I..." She tried saying, taking a deep breath to collect herself, "Okay, I'll just say it...I know sometimes it's hard for me to understand certain things and that I might not be the smartest girl around. But still, I never should believed you ever had bad luck in the first place."

"But it wasn't your fault, Leni. Almost all that happened this past week would've not occurred if I hadn't so stupidly played along with everything..." Lincoln said distressingly.

Leni pulled back and looked into her brother's eyes, "Don't call yourself stupid, Lincoln! I can't believe you'd say that!"

"It's the truth, though..." Lincoln insisted on, "I acted so irresponsibly and lead our family into the way they behaved. What else other than stupidity and selfishness can explain that?"

He shut his eyes as more tears were pooling up. Reliving his poor choices of the week on top of all that's happened today was really doing him in.

Though words weren't materializing to her, all Leni did was again hug Lincoln and held on for a while, doing what she could for physical comfort.

"Lincoln…" Leni spoke up after some time passed, "I don't want to hear you call yourself stupid again, okay? And no matter what, I still think I've should have know better about believing that whole bad luck stuff and such. Also, you had nothing to do with how Lynn played today and I don't want you to think she blames you in any way. She wanted you to come so badly and maybe in a way that actually helped her, you never know."

For the moment, Lincoln really didn't think that very last thought was possible at all. But in any event, he had to try looking in any sort of bright side. Like he mentioned earlier, Lynn didn't react to him with anger or intent of passing on blame and perhaps what she meant by her telling him not to talk or be near him was only that she needed some space for a while.

As he began coming to that conclusion in his head, Lincoln saw Leni pull back from her embrace and kiss him on his cheek, smiling at him afterwards.

"Well, I don't know what else to say on my end, but maybe I do feel a bit better now, if just that much." He admitted with his own small smile, "Thanks, Leni."

"Aw, you're welcome, Linky. I try to do my best." Leni said sweetly.

She briefly hugged Lincoln one last time, with him actually doing the same this time around, then she left him alone.

After giving himself some more time in his room, Lincoln chose to step on out, but once he did, he saw Lucy sitting near the door to her and Lynn's room.

"Uh, Lucy? What are you doing?" Lincoln asked as he came over to her.

"Sigh...I tried talking to Lynn about the game, but she wouldn't say a thing except for telling me to leave her alone." Lucy explained, "She even locked the door on top of that."

Upon hearing that, the slightest feelings of betterment Lincoln felt after Leni's visit were disappearing. He sat down alongside his sister and sighed.

"While you're here, though, I do want to apologize for my contribution in all that's happened about the bad luck mess, Lincoln." Lucy added.

"It's all right, Lucy." Lincoln said, "I don't blame you one little bit. In fact, I'd argue in your case, and with all our younger sisters as well, is that you are still young enough to perhaps easily buy into something you may not entirely understand yourself."

Lucy looked directly at her brother, "I don't know if I agree with that. I know a thing or two about bad luck charms through lots of reading and I should know better than to have ever thought you could be one of them. You and the rest of our family as well shine a good amount of light in the darkness I sometimes bring on to myself."

She shuffled over and gave him a hug, all while resting her head on his shoulder. At the same time, Lincoln put an arm around Lucy and brought her just that little bit closer to him.

"Well, thanks for that, Lucy." Lincoln stated proudly, "But again, you don't need to beat yourself up over this. A lot of this was my fault like I said this morning and I'll work on being better than how I was before earlier this week."

"Sigh...okay, if you say so, Lincoln. But what do we do about Lynn?" Lucy asked.

"Well...maybe what's best is that we leave her alone and hope she'll possibly want to open up more later on." Lincoln suggested.

"I guess so." Lucy agreed, albeit with some reluctance.

Coming to that agreement, Lucy let go of Lincoln and went on her way, though he still stuck around for a bit. Despite what he just said, there was a temptation within to try talking to Lynn right this moment. He almost went about with it by standing up and raised his hand like he was going to knock on the door.

"Lincoln?"

However, the arrival of Lori coming up the stairs put a stop to that.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Oh, I was thinking about trying to see how Lynn is doing, but since Lucy just told me she wants to be left alone, I guess it's not the best thing to do right now." Lincoln answered with a sigh.

"Yeah, I'd recommend that for the time being." Lori said, "But anyway, on a similar note, I was on my way to see how you were holding up. I know that Leni already did the same literally not too long ago as she's told me, but it never hurts to have another sister to check up on you, right?"

Lincoln shrugged, "I guess not."

Smiling a little, Lori gestured to Lincoln that he follow her over to her room, where they both sat down on the former's bed.

"So, if I'm understanding things right based on what Leni told me, you actually think you being at the game today was the reason Lynn's team lost?" Lori wondered.

Lincoln sighed and nodded very gently, "Maybe? I don't really know for sure, but it's hard not to think something like that. Of the four games Lynn played this week, her team won the ones I wasn't at, and lost the other two that I did go to. Even if I really didn't want to, how can I not see some sort of connection here?"

He lightly groaned and lowered his head down. In her part to soothe him, Lori softly rubbed her hand down his back.

"I think you're looking far too much into this, Lincoln. You really can't or shouldn't try to gleam too much from those experiences." She said.

"I know, and you are likely right, but I guess it's something that I can't help but wonder. Plus, it's not just today's game that bothered me, but how Lynn reacted right afterwards and how she didn't want me to even be near her. Maybe she wanted to simply be left alone for a bit, but in that moment...I feared that she came awfully close to calling me bad luck again." Lincoln said, getting more and more disquieted with every word.

Lori brought her arm up around him, "I doubt that's the case at all. I mean, think about for a moment. Would Lynn go through all the effort to confess she was wrong to call you that in the beginning, all the effort to remind me and all our family about how we acted because of it and even gave you the forum to explain your own wrongdoing, only to retrograde back to how she was at that start of the week just like that? Look, Lynn can be a lot of things, but I think we can both agree that going back on her word is literally not in her character."

Lincoln had to admit to himself there had to be quite a bit of truth to what his oldest sister just explained to him, even though he still wasn't feeling the most optimistic about how Lynn must be handling things.

"But in case you need an actual example to back all that I said..." Lori continued, "I did catch you trying to see what was going on with Lynn on our way back home in Vanzilla, and when I was trying to get her to say anything at all, she did mention something about how fearing that she disappointed you more than anyone due to today's loss and because of it, she might think you'll start believing yourself in that bad luck nonsense when you never did like you admitted this morning. I hate to think based on what you said that there's the slightest chance you've considered this possibility."

Once more, as if Lincoln needed more reasons to feel bad. Now learning that Lynn had almost the same worries about how he'd feel had things gone badly at the game lowered his spirits yet again.

"Well, she's totally right..." He said wistfully.

Lori sighed and pulled her brother closer to her, "Lincoln, there's absolutely nothing to this bad luck farce and I do believe deep down inside you know that's the case. It's not true now, and it wasn't true before, either. Would Lynn really want to see you like this, thus making her feel literally more guilty than she already is?"

Lincoln sighed, then shook his head, "No...probably not."

"Of course, and neither would anyone else, too. So it's best that you don't beat yourself up too much about the game and hope for the best for Lynn when she does feel like finally talking more about it, okay?" Lori emphasized with finality.

"I guess so..." Lincoln responded, trying to sound the slightest bit hopeful, "Thanks for that, Lori. Had Leni not already drilled that into me not too long ago, you doing the same probably will give it that final needed push. And while we're at it, since I didn't say it this morning, I really want to apologize for any damage I caused to your golf clubs. Knowing obviously that since I played along with the bad luck charge, I dropped them on purpose as opposed to on accident, though you would have been upset at me regardless and understandably so. But I want to take this time to tell you that I'm willing and able to do whatever I can to make it up to you. I could pay for any of the damages or for replacements, but that'd clear out all the money I have and it likely wouldn't be even close to covering everything. If that can't work, then maybe I can be your caddie for the next several games, but that's assuming you have golf clubs that are usable, so I don't know. Or maybe I could-"

"Okay, okay, settle down, Lincoln." Lori told him while putting her hands on his shoulders, "Perhaps we can talk and figure something out later. Right now, I don't think you literally need any more things to stress out over about after today."

Lincoln took a breath of air and then looked up to his to sister, "All right, if you say so...and thanks again, Lori."

Finally, he showed a small smile as he wrapped his arms around her waist, and she drew him close again toward her with her own embrace, too.

"It's no trouble, Lincoln." Lori said to him softly.

* * *

Several hours later, dinner was almost ready. In the time beforehand, no one else had tried in talking to Lynn, as it had been universally agreed upon to leave her alone and wait until she was prepared to discuss things on her own time and pace, assuming she even wanted to at all.

By the time the call had been put out to gather around the table, most everyone arrived promptly, but Lynn took her time in coming on down and when she did, there was an uncharacteristically though perfectly understandably sullen look on her face.

While dinner did roll on as usual once it began, Lynn was largely kept out of any small talk for the initial duration. However, she drew attention to herself when she used her fork to practically stab every portion of her meal in a more increasingly frustrated mood. By this point, someone felt the need to finally broach the subject.

"Uh, listen, LJ, I know you might not be in the mood to fully talk about what happened at the game today, but there's a peculiarity that's stuck out to me all day long and haven't asked until now. Why were you positioned as center outfield instead of the pitcher like you usually are?" Lynn Sr. asked.

The pace of Lynn Jr.'s fork stabbing gradually got slower until it came to a halt. She took a deep breath to release the short lived frustration that came about and finally, perhaps she was about to open up.

"The player who's normally there was benched due to spraining her wrist just an hour before the game and the manager made the split second decision to have me act as the replacement believing I'm a good all around player who could handle anything." She said, finishing that sentence with a scoff, "Well, today debunked _that_ flat."

With that curiosity solved, nobody else chose to press her any further than necessary and went on with their meals. A short time later, though, came an absolutely shocking claim from Lynn.

"I'm not the best..."

Those choice four words coming from her froze up each member of her family, some even letting their utensils clang onto their plates.

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Come again?"

"I said I'm not the best..." Lynn reiterated.

"You what now?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Say that again?"

"Has everyone gone deaf?! I'm…not….the...best! I'm. Not. The. Best! Have I made it clear enough for you now?!" Lynn shouted angrily.

"Whoa, whoa, take it easy, Lynn..." Rita told her daughter calmly, "You don't need to be like this..."

Lynn banged her fist on the table, "Dang it, why not, Mom? After today, don't I have a right to feel this way?!"

"Lynn, get a grip on yourself! There's literally no need to lose it like this!" Lori said in a mix of firmness and compassion.

"Oh, don't you get on my case, too, Lori!" Lynn fired back.

"But she's right, dude. It's just a game! It's not life or death that we're talkin' 'bout here!" Luna tried in emphasizing to her sister.

"'Just a game'? It was the friggin' _playoffs_, Luna! The game that each and every other one was leading up to all season! And guess what? I completely blew it! Why? 'Cause as I just got done saying four times, and here comes number five, I'm not the best!" Lynn said, at least this time dialing the aggression down a notch.

"But it's not entirely your fault, LJ, and for that matter, don't let such a loss question your talents as an athlete." Lynn Sr. assured.

Lynn Jr. scoffed contemptuously, "You don't get it, Dad. None of you do! You don't realize how often I hype myself up again and again about being the best. Ask any athlete, be they professional, collegiate or amateur, and most any of them will say at some point they've convinced themselves they are indeed the very best in their field. What's the point of competing if you don't tell yourself that? And what happens when you fail miserably and it dawns upon you that you're not as great as you really are? What about those who've become so convinced you're untouchable only to then see that illusion get shattered into a million little pieces? I've let everyone down! My teammates, the crowd in attendance, my whole family..."

Right as she was about to finish her thought, she blinked her eyes hard, then opened them again while shifting her sights over to her only brother.

"And worst of all, I've let you down the most, Lincoln..." Lynn said, not even hiding the cracking in her voice anymore, "I am completely _ashamed_ of my performance today, because I wanted to impress you more than anyone. When you lead everyone in cheering my name, I thought that would give me the extra little boost to pull through, since my confidence was all but shot by then. When I cracked what I thought was a guaranteed homer, I figured everything was in place to at least tie things up and keep my team in contention. But no, I failed...and when we lost...I became so scared that you would think coming today had some part in it. Then...when I told you to keep away from me..."

Any semblance of holding things up for Lynn vanished, as tears freely began falling down. She brought her hands up to hide her face from view and sobbed.

"I can't do this...I need to be excused." She choked out.

Lynn moved off from her chair and tried to leave, but just as she almost headed up the stairs, she felt someone grab onto her hand. She turned to see the one whom she thought had been most disappointed in her performance staring back at her with his own set of tears in his eyes.

"Lincoln, please...I can't deal right now...I..."

Whatever she'd try to say couldn't come through when Lincoln rather suddenly yanked her into an embrace. At first, Lynn struggled to get out of his grip, but he would not let go. After a few more tries, she gave up and broke down into several more sobs while weakly hugging him back.

"Lincoln...I'm sorry…!" Lynn hysterically proclaimed through heavy cries.

"Lynn, don't apologize!" Lincoln emphatically stated, "Just...don't! I'm not disappointed at all! The only thing that worried me was exactly what you just said a moment ago. I too was scared that my being there affected you in some way to the point that...that...that you'd call me bad luck again!"

Lynn tightened her end of the embrace, "No! No, I wouldn't _dare_ do such a thing again after all we've been through! You being there today meant _everything_ to me and more! I'd never stoop so low in blaming you for a loss again...because I love you too much to do so, Lincoln! I love you…!"

"And...and I love you, too, Lynn!" Lincoln tearfully returned in full.

By the time those proclamations of renewed platonic feelings between siblings had been reinforced, both Lynn and Lincoln were down on their knees and clinging on to one another like nothing else mattered in this moment. Eventually, the rest of their family left the table and joined by their side right as they finally did let go.

"I'm sorry again, everybody..." Lynn said while wiping down her eyes.

"Don't be, Lynn..." Luan told her, gently turning her younger sister over to face her, "And about something else you said earlier, you shouldn't obsess with _being_ the best, which is something no one is demanding of you. Rather, it's all about _trying _your best and nothing more."

"She's right, Lynn, but you're always going to be the best in our hearts no matter if you lose." Leni said as she lightly hugged the sports girl from the side.

"You make for a great athlete...but for an even better sister." Lucy added, creaking a smile on her lips.

"'ynn fo' in!"

That very odd and broken sounding declaration caught the whole family's attention coming from Lily just after she crawled over onto Lynn's lap.

"What...what did you say, Lily?" She wondered in her baby sister's direction.

"I don't proclaim to be the foremost expert in our infant sibling's burgeoning dialect, but I'd guesstimate she may have been formulating 'Lynn for the win'." Lisa theorized, "If such is the case, I must wholeheartedly endorse that sentiment. But why settle for mere words…?"

As an action to back up their youngest sibling's likely statement, Lisa followed what Leni had already started by also hugging Lynn, which in turn initiated a whole gaggle of hugs from her family.

"Lynn for the win!" Lana and Lola happily shouted.

Though she couldn't exactly do much on her end due to being sort of overwhelmed by the sheer loving force of the familial group hug, Lynn did at least wrap her arms around Lily for her infant sister's small part in the larger effort of her family making her feel better. She let out a shuddered breath of air and smiled.

"Thank you..." Lynn simply said, but underpinned with such undying appreciation for all surrounding her.

* * *

Into the late evening hours, Lincoln took in some final minutes of watching TV before he would head off to bed. It made for a soothing end for the highly emotional yet cathartic events of just a couple of hours ago. All the worrying loose ends both he and Lynn held on to throughout the day since her devastating loss had at last been mended and tied up, plus knowing that such events have very much strengthened the bond he shared with his fifth oldest sister.

"Hey, Linc."

Speaking of older sisters, Lincoln turned over in the direction from where the call out of his short form nickname came from to see Luna and Luan having come on downstairs.

"Mind if we sit in for a bit, bro?" Luna asked.

"Sure, I don't see why not." Lincoln answered while grinning.

With him giving them confirmation, the third and fourth oldest sisters sat alongside their only little brother while he turned off the TV.

"So how are you holding up, Lincoln?" Luan wondered.

"Good, certainly a lot better than before after coming home from the game." Lincoln replied, sighing contently.

"Well that's nice to know, bro." Luna said, lightly rubbing his shoulder, "And speaking of which, we did think about talking with you just as we did arrive back home, but Leni insisted on tackling things instead as you now come to know."

Lincoln smiled, "Yeah, her doing that did help out a little, as did talks with Lucy and Lori, too. Then came what happened at dinner and to finally clear things up with Lynn after several hours of fearing the worst between us was such a relief."

"It must have been, and on that note, we're really proud of what you did during that time, Lincoln." Luan said as she came over closer and put an arm around him, "I really do think you helped out Lynn a great deal."

"Well...thanks. To be honest, I wasn't sure if it even was the best thing to do at that moment, but I hated seeing her be so sad and self-loathing that I just couldn't help myself and felt the need for someone to be there for her." Lincoln explained.

"I'd say you did do the right thing, dude, and like Luan just said, doing that I bet gave her that much needed moment of release to finally completely let everything out. So yeah, good on you, Linc." Luna said, now joining in putting her arm around him, too.

Soon enough, a full blown hug enveloped Lincoln from both of his sisters, something he savored while returning the favor from his side of things as well.

"Thanks, you guys and similarly, I want to thank you both again for what you did for me last night." Lincoln told them upon separating from the hug, "Though I will say the setup was a tad uncomfortable, being squeezed between you two within an air mattress that likely wasn't made to hold three people at the same time."

"Yeah, I don't blame you one bit for thinking like that, little bro, though I did say at the time that it was going to be a tight squeeze and that we'd try to make the best of it anyway." Luna said, "And on a related note, Luan and I did get to talking before we came on down and thought maybe at some point we could do something like that again, only just for fun and in a better setting than the garage."

Lincoln liked the sound of that, "Sure, I'm in favor, but actually, why wait until some other time? We could try doing it now if you like, and as an on the spot idea, maybe what I can do is bring a sleeping bag and stay in your room this time around."

Both Luna and Luan looked at one another, gave their brother's idea a second of thought and voiced their approval.

"Sure, why not?" Luan said.

"Yeah, we can be down with that if you are willing." Luna added.

"Well, great! How about you guys head on back and I'll join you in just a minute?" Lincoln suggested.

His sisters nodded and both headed on upstairs to their room while Lincoln did the same. He rummaged around and was about to bring out the sleeping bag he kept stored away underneath his bed, but then he heard a knocking on his door.

"Who is it?"

"Me."

The simple answer made Lincoln immediately know who it was. He got back up and opened the door to see Lynn standing before him.

"Oh, hey Lynn. Was there something you need?" Lincoln asked.

"Yeah, just a quick talk with you if it's not too much trouble." Lynn answered.

"Uh, sure, of course." Lincoln said with a grin.

He stepped aside and allowed his sister entry to his room and both took a seat on the bed.

"So what's up?" Lincoln inquired.

"Pretty simple really..." Lynn started out with.

Before going on, she flung her arms around him and tightly held on.

"I can't thank you enough, Lincoln, for everything. Coming to the game, doing what you did at dinner...just everything." She said with the utmost sincerity.

Lincoln grinned more widely and hugged her back, "It's no problem, Lynn. It's the least I could've done in return after how sorry I felt for you for losing today."

"Yeah, guess I'm pretty lucky for all that." Lynn said with a little laugh, "And speaking of luck, let me remind you again that I will never do something as stupid as calling you bad luck ever again, I swear to you on that."

"And similarly, I'll swear in being upfront on whether or not I want to come to any of your games or whatever other events that our sisters have, nor will I use dishonest means to avoid attending them." Lincoln promised back.

For a little while longer, neither of them did anything else other than remaining in their shared embrace of each other, again reinforcing a stronger bond that has come about the whirlwind of events that has come between them.

"Well, maybe I should finally let you get ready for bed, Linc." Lynn said, finally letting go, "I should do the same as well."

She hopped off her brother's bed and almost headed out the door, only to stop when he asked something of her.

"Actually, hold on, Lynn..." Lincoln began, "Just as you came along I was gathering up my sleeping bag because I was gonna stay with Luna and Luan in their room sort of like what they did for me last night, and if you're perhaps willing, maybe you could come along as well?"

Lynn thought about it for a moment, and sure enough, the idea sounded like something worth doing in her mind.

"Um...sure, but why?" She asked.

"Why not? Just thought it be a fun idea is all." Lincoln responded.

It took another couple seconds, but Lynn showed him a smile, "All right, okay, if you insist. Just let me tell Lucy about it and I'll snag my sleeping bag while I'm at it."

With that decided on, Lynn made a quick stop to her and Lucy's room while Lincoln resumed retrieving his sleeping bag and walked over down the hall. He waited for Lynn to come along and once she did, he knocked on the door leading to Luna and Luan's room before seeing himself in.

"Hey guys, sorry it took a little longer than expected, but there's a good reason for that." Lincoln said, "I was wondering if you possibly had room for one more?"

He walked further into the room and stepped aside to show Lynn tagging along with him.

"Oh, hey there, LJ." Luna greeted her, "Did Lincoln ask you to come join us?"

Lynn nodded, "Yeah, something like that. I was simply having a brief talk with him and then he out of the blue asked that I perhaps come along, too. So...is that okay?"

"Sure, I'd say so. In fact, I'm totally _four_ having a quartet of us having such a little sleepover!" Luan jovially joked around.

Three pairs of eyes were rolled, but regardless, Lynn and Lincoln unfurled and set up their sleeping bags side by side before settling in while their older sisters did the same in their beds..

"Hey, Lincoln?" Lynn said.

"Hmm?" Lincoln uttered in response.

"Thanks again."

Lynn moved closer so she could show some serious and rare sisterly affection by kissing Lincoln right on his cheek. He blushed and chuckled nervously, but was nevertheless very appreciative. As a return gesture, he reached out and took a hold of her hand, keeping a grip on it all the way until they went to sleep.

In all, it had been an incredible 24 hours for Lynn and Lincoln. First, Lincoln felt a sense of solidarity thanks to the three sisters that were present in the room that help fix and resolve everything that came about between them and their family. Then soon enough, Lynn got to feel that same feeling during dinner when everyone came to her side thanks to Lincoln taking the lead in consoling her following today's heartbreaking loss. Both also vowed to never repeat the mistakes of the past week and though there's a chance both will try to say they're more personally responsible than the other, what's most important is that they did admit to their respective wrongdoings and were able to set things right between themselves and their family as a whole.

Truly, no mistakes could ever be enough to break them and they will always come together and become closer than ever before.

* * *

**And with that, another one of these types of fanfics has reached its end. The only other thing I'll mention is that the name for the Beaverton team is one I came up with on my own, and is a reference to a real life minor league baseball team, the Richmond Flying Squirrels.**

** That's all I'd like to say, so thanks for reading!**


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